thursday30
Thursday30
Eric “Guitar” Davis
Friday24
NobunnyIke Reilly Assassination
Saturday1
Chuck BerryHot Machines
Sunday2
CastevetEyegouger, Johnny Vomit
Monday3
Extraordinary Popular Delusions
Wednesday5
MikadoWeasel Walter, Mary Halvorson, and Peter Evans
friday31
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NOBUNNY When he puts on his scuzzy, sweat-bedraggled rabbit mask, Justin Champlin undergoes a transformation worthy of Bruce Banner—he becomes Nobunny, the demented bandleader at a modern-day bubblegum-punk sock hop, mooning all the Negative Nancys and Debbie Downers of the world. Chicago-born, Oakland-based Champlin has been throwing his insanely fun musical pizza parties since 2001, and Nobunny’s healthy discography includes a heap of seven-inches and cassettes as well as two proper albums, 2008’s spitball-shooting masterpiece Love Visions and this year’s First Blood (Goner). Calling a Nobunny record “mature” makes about as much sense as calling a mud-wrestling tournament in a VFW hall “classy,” but some of the lyrics on First Blood are almost (gasp) contemplative, and the production and performances are definitely better. The fuzz is less tinny and brittle, and the fumbles in the guitar work are gone—but Champlin’s squawky, chirpy drawl is still totally infectious. I’m going to take a not-so-daring leap and promise that Nobunny’s apparent journey out of adolescence will have little to no effect on the raucous pogo fests he whips up at his shows—which more often than not end with him stripped down to a pair of colored (and soon to be discolored) American Apparel briefs. Big Freedia & the Divas headline; Nobunny opens and DJs Rusty Lazer and Whatevs & Wildcard spin. 10 PM, Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western, 773-276-3600 or 866-468-3401, $25. —Kevin Warwick
saturday1
sunday2
Eyegouger headlines; local death-metal diehards Cardiac Arrest (who released their third full-length, Haven for the Insane, on Ibex Moon in June) and Johnny Vomit open. 7 PM, Empty Bottle, 1035 N. Western, 773-276-3600 or 866-468-3401, $3. —Vera Videnovich
wednesday5